Cable

M

Mr.Wrong

Joined
Aug 5, 2004
Messages
197
How can I tell if a cable is suitable for a knife. The reason being is that on one of my scavaging escapades I went to the back of a wrecker shop and picked up 25' of steel cable.
 
Do a quench test while it's still in cable form, just quench in water and see if the wires bend or break.
 
the cable your looking for has the "hardenable" steel as the core, the outer twists are mild steel or at least that's what I've found. It is a fairly expensive cable in the 'new' and I've found very little of it in junk piles unless your out'na oil patch.

regards, mitch
 
Try to cut a length of with a hack saw some of the hard stuff makes short work of your blade. It is a real pest. I gennerally cut the cable I have with an angle grinder cut of wheel. Make sure you keep the safety guard on your grinder. It is a dangerous cut and make cause the blade to fly of in bits and kill you or knock an eye out.
 
Do not mess with cable under 1" diameter. Most of the time before you get it welded up you burn all the cabon out of it.
Cable is the easyiest damascus to make. Good Luck
 
indian george said:
Do not mess with cable under 1" diameter. Most of the time before you get it welded up you burn all the cabon out of it.
Cable is the easyiest damascus to make. Good Luck
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I know you said not to use any thing under 1" but what about 3/4"?.. This cable came off of a big wreaker truck. Wouldnt they use some pretty strong cable for that application? Oh well being new to this game it was hard to turn down 20' of free material. I appreciate all the posts they really make learning easy.

Pj
 
Mr.Wrong said:
I know you said not to use any thing under 1" but what about 3/4"?.. This cable came off of a big wreaker truck. Wouldnt they use some pretty strong cable for that application? Oh well being new to this game it was hard to turn down 20' of free material. I appreciate all the posts they really make learning easy.

Pj
Click to expand...
Make a blade and don't temper it. See how it works if the edge chips temper it then start'g around 350 for a hour. Just make youself a baseline to follow of the next blades.
:D Good Luck.
 
I hate to bring this post from the dead. But I finally got around to quenching a peice. In Mr. goddard's 50$ knife book It says that after the quench the cable should be hard as glass. What does he mean by this? I did what the instructions said and the cable got super hard and brittle. I was able to break the cable with my hands "Mabye it was my BRUTE strength" :rolleyes: Does this sound like workable cable?

Thanks PJ :D
 
After you quench the cable just try filing it with a new file,if it won't bite the steel then you are hard enough,if it bites in try quenching again and if it still bites it won't work,But it sounds like you got it with this cable.
If you want to make a bigger billet of cable for a blade just weld to billets together,or you can tack the ends of the cable and heat two pieces welded together at the same time and twist them together then weld.I have made bigg bundles of small cable by welding them all together on the ends then twisting when hot and welding,makes for a cool looking billet,you can even twist in a couple of solid round bars with the cale for a more dramatic effect.The coolness of cable is endless.
Bruce
 
What Bruce and IG said, just flux the snot out of it! Cable is real easy to weld, hard to get a billet flaw free. Nothing worse than getting down to the 120-220 grit and finding a cold shut. :barf: But cable can be a whole lot of fun!
 
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